


McNuggets

by Madzie



Series: McDonalds At Midnight [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Dates, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 11:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7168388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madzie/pseuds/Madzie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>it only takes a quick glance for him to come to the conclusion that this boy is an oddity to step into a McDonald’s in general, let alone one on the crisp of a hipster community, in the middle of the night.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>--OR--</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Prompt » It’s  3am and you’re the only person in McDonald’s right now and why do I have to work the night shift”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> LOL I'm trash...But for some reason I got a really strange burst of inspiration for one of my first ships XD

At three o’clock in the morning, the McDonald’s joint on the edge of Williamsburg, Brooklyn is more dreary than one would suspect. With flickering lights, and the patrons being the lot whom are either feeding there high, or ending their nightshift…It was quite pitiful indeed.

Standing from his position behind the register, Nico Di Angelo curses all the gods above for his current predicament, and despises the fact how he himself should be considered in the same grouping as the current patrons.

with a sigh of annoyance, the dark haired college student, cradles his chin upon his palm, and questions the necessity of an education, and all the different ways he could convince his father that he has grown the appropriate amount of character by this point, despite this being merely his second shift.

Before Nico can catch a few moments of rest, he tragically catches the ringing of the bell, indicating the entrance of a new customer. As he rises and attempts to settle down his ire towards the situation as a whole, he strays his gaze over to the doorway.

it only takes a quick glance for him to come to the conclusion that this boy is an oddity to step into a McDonald’s in general, let alone one on the crisp of a hipster community, in the middle of the night.

Calling him a sight for soar eyes is a mild mannered way of putting it. With his bronze skin appearing to glow even in the dark, and messy ebony locks swept across his forehead, the boy depicted an easy sort of charisma. One which Nico has only witnessed portrayed on the silver screen, where the slightest curve of his lips snatched the breath from the lungs of onlooker’s, and the pixilated glint in his piercing emeralds of green, enticed even the most law abiding of citizens to take part of fraudulent activities in the depths of the night.

As he stepped nearer, Nico reprimanded himself for his staring.

So what if Percy Jackson, the boy you have been searing wholes in during your psychology course for the entire semester, has entered the room. And so what if the first instance you will interact with you outside of the classroom is Percy probably drunk off his ass, and you’re being his McDonald’s server.

It’s all cool.

“Hey man,” Percy greets in that husky tone that makes all his words sound as if an alluring incantation, and a crisp grin ripe with vitality…Nico questions whether it as difficult to have people succumb under his spell so effortlessly. “Can I get a Chicken McNugget meal.”

 

Nico can not help but chuckle at the order by this irritatingly good looking boy.

“Don’t judge me man, those nuggets are amazing.” Percy counters with a smirk which only makes it so his piercing orbs gleam with something akin to amusement.

“Oh-No, I didn’t mean to judge,” Nico stammers out. Disregarding there probably being some stupid rule in a employee handbook that no one has ever read sense it’s creation, of not teasing customers. Nico definitely did not want Percy Jackson to think that he was making fun of him. “I love chicken Mcnuggets.”

“It’s cool Nico, I was just joking around.”

Releasing a breath of relief, Nico enters into the cash register the order. It not being until he hands Percy the reseat does he click together the fact that the athlete has just called him by his first name.

With eyes nearly popping from their sockets, and his mouth agape, Nico does not know how to react to this most recent development.

It was easy enough learning Percy’s name, he was known throughout the campus. Being an adonis in actuality, and the captain of the swim team, as well as a forward on the Soccer Team, would do that to a person. Though, in contrast, Nico has made it his mission to ensure his identity to be put on the down low. It was hard enough being the son of one of the wealthiest bankers on wall street without being recognized in one of the countless preparatory schools he was forced to attend in his youth. At least in his college career, it was much easier to find a couple close friends, and swim along through the throng of students.

So how in hades did Percy know his name?

“What?” Percy inquires with a raised brow, becoming a bit unnerved by the gawking by Nico. “Please don’t tell me that your name isn’t actually Nico, and I’ve gotten you confused with another cute sophomore, who is forced to make weirdly insightful points during Psychology?”

The Italian native can only imagine with despair the deep scarlet his cheeks must be, when sensing the heat blazing his face. Not only does Percy Jackson know his name, but he has also stated, with a certainty that one would have when answering that the equation of two plus two equaling four, that he was “cute.”

But then again, Percy had also referred to him as weird, so Nico tries to push aside all the remain vestiges of embarrassment, and collect himself.

“No, no…That’s my name…I just didn’t know that you knew it,” Nico sputters out with as much composure as he could grasp in his flustered state.

“Of course I do,” Percy chuckles out with a lopsided grin splayed across his angular features. “You’re really good friends with that really hot latina chick, right?”

And it was as if with those few words, Nico’s entire being deflated.

Of course Percy wouldn’t be serious when calling Nico, a socially awkward sophomore, cute. Where Percy was a Scintillating force of everything brilliant and illustrious, Nico spent his days contently tucked away into the shadows. How could he ever present the slightest amount of intrigue to someone like that?

“Reyna Ramirez-Aralleno, she’s dating one of my best friends,” Percy explains, seemingly not to have picked up on Nico’s subdued state. “Thalia Grace.”

Nico Perks. “You know Thals?”

“Know her, she’s practically my annoying sister.” Percy snickers.

“She’s awesome,” Nico grins warmly when thinking of his close friend, and how happy she makes Reyna, but also slightly cursing the girl for not introducing him to Percy any earlier, even if he hadn’t told her of his small crush.

“Don’t tell her that, her ego does not need to be even more inflated.” Percy huffs. “Though I suppose that if you told her around Reyna, she wouldn’t even hear ya.”

A titter spills from nico’s lips, without his realizing it, and he questions whether Percy has that effect on everyone. “Tell me about it, they’re practically in their own world when together.”

“It’s quite sickening,” Percy nods. “But I bet it must be annoying for you, whenever you guys go on double dates, and they’re constantly speaking some sort of inside joke that no one ever understands.”

Suddenly, Nico feels the slightest puncturing to his heart when thinking of his first and only boyfriend, and the few occasions that the foursome had actually gone out.

“Sorry, did I put my foot in my mouth?” Percy sinks his teeth onto his lip, and has the humility to appear abashed.

“Oh, no you didn’t…I just kinda broke up with my boyfriend.”

“Oh,” Percy hikes his brows in shock. “I’m really sorry about that.”

 

Not wishing to delve any deeper into the mess of situations that his first relationship had been, within the depressing company that the pair are surrounded by, Nico diverts his gaze, and waves Percy’s concern away. “Life happens.”

With the slightest of frowns, Percy nods as if they had just exchanged a surreptitious whisper.

“It sounds like there’s still some baggage there, huh?”Void of a response, Percy pulls out one of the pens lying near the register, and begins to scribble something on the back of his reseat. “My mom always told me that I had the tendency to hold the weight of the sky on my shoulders…I’m sure that some package won’t make much of a difference at all.”  
Once he presses the scrap into Nico’s palm, he grabs his meal, and swaggers out of the joint in a flurry. Leaving in his wake, a very perplexed, and curious Nico Di Angelo, eyeing the endearingly messy scrawl of a phone number.

Nico ponders if he had just been asked out by the enigma that is Percy Jackson.

***


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The date

“Stop fidgeting!” Bianca chastises with a flip of her dark hair.

“I can’t help it,” Nico spews out tersely, plunging his clenched fists into his slacks. “I’m not exactly experienced in this type of thing.”

“Do you mean dating, or wearing something other than a graphic T for the first time in your life?” Zoë jests with a ghost of a smirk flashing behind her plump lips.

“Reign in your girlfriend,” is all Nico spares as a response towards Bianca, his gaze inadvertently flickering towards the clock placed over the mantel of his family’s ornate fireplace—Just as he has repeatedly done intermittently throughout the hour—Each ticking past sounding as if an explosion in his head.

“There,” Bianca chirps proudly as she completes clipping the good luck charm she had purchased for her younger brother during her travels to Italy last semester, on to the chest pocket of his blazer.

“I can’t help but feel like I’m far too over dressed,” Nico deadpans as eh catches his reflection in the dark glass of the coffee table situated before Zoë 

“Nonsense,” Bianca waves off. “You’ve been majorly crushing on this dude sense like the start of the year! There is no reason not to make him sweat a little right off the bat.” The brunette shoots her little brother a playful wink before turning, with a flourish, to her girlfriend. “Zoe-Zoe, tell’m he looks adorable!”

Zoë gives an exasperated, but fond role of the eyes towards Bianca’s antics—An expression quite common for whenever the pair interacted—“well I suppose for as far as boys go, you don’t look awful—Ah, just maybe comb your hair a little huh?”

“It’s naturally buoyant,” Nico says with the normal dose of apathy that he doses into most of his conversations, an attribute Bianca has tried on a number of occasions to try and get him to quit.

“Ah, right,” Zoë rolls her eyes. “Hey B we really should get going if we wanna actually make our reservations.”

Nico spotted the way his sister pursed her lips nervously, and began folding her skirt between her fingers. Percy should’ve been here an hour ago, and the trio all know it.

With a sickening plunge of his stomach, Nico obscures his face from their sight, so not to let anything be exposed. “Go.”

“No Neek, we can—“

“Bianca just go,” Nico all but barks as he swivels abruptly towards their direction. “It’s fine, you guys have fun.”

Nico really shouldn’t be upset, or surprised. Honestly he should’ve never texted that stupid number on that stupid McDonald’s receipt. 

he and Percy Jackson live in two different worlds…Worlds that have no business colliding.

This was probably just a huge joke on his end, besides the last guy Percy Jackson dated was Luke Castellan—And well putting it mildly—Nico was just about the furthest thing from the whole, tall, tan and blonde beach boy model type…No Nico was much more equips to fit the roll of the gangly, introverted, comic book obsessed guy that most people didn’t even know the name of.

Bianca parts her lips to retaliate, probably effortlessly reading her brother’s inner thoughts quite easily, and ready to shoot down all his insecurities, and calling him daft and brilliant within the same breath. Though before she could, the buzzing of a door reverberates in the space between them.

Zoë permits entrance to the interloper, swinging open the heavy wooden door with a glower plastered to her sharp, angular features all the while.

“Ah hey,” the meek voice to the guest dances to Nico—An entrancing New Yorker accent weaved into each vowel, and swallowing Nico into their depths.

“Is that all you have to say,” Bianca shoots his direction as she saunters towards the threshold where Percy resides precariously.

“Ah—I’m looking for Nico?” Percy offers cluelessly, though only now Nico can catch the labored breaths he is taking all the while, obviously having ran to Nico’s address.

He probably just forgot.

Before Bianca hurls any insults towards his date for his lack of punctuality, Nico leaps to where they have congregated in the hall.

“Hey perse,” the dark haired teen greats the junior, watching as his features become relieved into have spotted him. “Have fun on your date sis,” Nico calls from over his shoulder as he ushers Percy away from the residency. 

Bianca swallows any prevailing quarrels she has against the indisputably good looking git, and just gives her little brother a nod of the head as a means of good luck.

 

***

 

The pair of boys step out into the cloak of darkness that has swaddled the preeminent New York Skyline, only intruded upon by the dying coral rays of the sun, clawing against the wide expanse, and intermingling with the subtle wisps of starlight.

“It’s the first sow of the year,” Nico comments dryly, effectively dragging Percy out of his inner musings. 

Percy is semi positive that he noted the sudden shift of whether so late in the season as well, though he can’t be sure considering how he had ultimately become dumbfounded once catching sight of his date.

The drench of moonlight traced over Nico’s silhouette as if a soft kiss, while the fluttering tuffs of snow swirl around him in a mystical haze. Percy swears that the teen must’ve been an apparition of sorts, a striking being composed of all dark shadows, and hopes of once upon a times.

“Percy? Are you okay?”

With a start, Percy is effectively jolted out of his—most likely—creepy staring. 

“ah yeah, yeah, everything is awesome…I just wanna say sorry again about being so late.”

Nico looked a bit taken aback, “Ah no it’s cool, no sweat off my back.”

“It’s just, I had a really late shift, and then I missed the A-train, and then this there was this homeless dude—“ Nico’s face only twists more confusedly, so Percy decides that it’s a fruitless effort to explain all his deficiencies. “I’m just really sorry I’m a real shitty date.”

Nico does something that Percy really doesn’t expect, he breaks into a chuckle. Nothing much really, just a small titter of amusement. but it was enough to restore Percy with the belief that he might not screw up this date quite so completely.

“Hey man don’t laugh, my life is kind of a struggle.”

“Oh please,” Nico teases in that ever so hypnotizing staccato of his—One which threatens to swallow Percy whole in it’s every enchanting cadence, if he doesn’t take caution. “You’re Percy Jackson.”

“Well then, if we’re stating the obvious here,” Percy starts with a crooked grin. “You’re Nico Di Angelo, and we are two students of NYU who are on a date.”

The tops of Nico’s prominent cheek bones flush with pink for only a moment—though Percy supposes it is ought to do with the chilly weather over anything else.

“Well then,” Nico smiles, slowing his pace just slightly to fall back into step with Percy—It’s not his fault that the kid has legs as long as the fucking Eiffel Tower. “Where precisely are we going to for this date? You never specified in our texts.” Nico questions with a quirk of the brow, making it so a sudden prickling sensation crawls down Percy’s spine. Something thrilling and nerve wracking and just entirely astounding—A feat which Luke rarely caused in his sweetest of moments, but something this Di Angelo boy can elicit with the slightest upturn of the lip. 

Quite dangerous indeed, the power Nico seems to hold over Percy already.

“We’re almost there Mr. impatience,” Percy teases with a lopsided grin as he tugs Nico along in a sudden sprint down the winter wonderland that has fallen over the extensive city.

 

***

 

The eventually slow down to a complete stop in front of perhaps one of the most distinguished museums in all of New York City, (Second only to the Metropolitan itself.) 

“Ah Percy, I’m pretty sure the Pantheon is closed, considering it’s nearing ten O’clock at night.” Nico points out jocularly. 

“That’s the point Di Angelo,” Percy smirks mischievously. And only then did Nico take note of how his eyes suddenly shone with something a bit more devious, and fraudulent.

Nico’s stomach lurches forward with a sudden nervous intensity. “Please tell me we are not breaking into a building withholding priceless artifacts within it on our first date?” (And most likely only considering how this is going). Nico tacks on silently, but immediately refutes himself once he locks gazes with those stupidly green eyes of his again.

A spell of silence passes before Percy breaks into an ear shattering laugh—Eyes crinkling, and a golden radiance echoing all the while. The dulcet sound frolics around Nico, and causes vestiges of adoration to gleam in his dark pools of obsidian.

“Who the hell do you think I am Di Angelo?” Percy eventually retaliates, a few teehees yet bubbling out between words at the interrogation. “I’m basically going through my whole college career on a behavioral scholarship—I’m pretty sure that’ll be shut to hell if I got caught by the cops for breaking into some creepy museum with my date in the middle of the night.”

“Huh,” Nico scoffs indignantly. “Fine prick, then why the hell are we here again, I mean if we’re not going in—“

“Oh, we’re going in.” Percy corrects with the shake of the index finger. (It’s all Nico can do not to bite him.) “We’re just not breaking in.”

Nico hikes his dark brows towards the other boy, directing for Percy to elaborate.

“One of my best friends—You probably know her, Annabeth Chase?”

“Ah yeah, we’re acquainted.” Of course Nico knows the pretty, blonde barista who takes his order practically every morning. But honestly, the main reason Nico recognizes the name is because he’s liked Percy so bloody long, and he knows that she and Percy had been in a whirlwind of a romance in the summer after he and Luke’s messy break. 

Nico was objected to watching the pair practically glued onto each other by the lips at every god forsaken party he was dragged to—Even if he had no right to be so irked sense he was yet in relations with Will at the time—But details, details.

“yeah,” Percy continues as he leads Nico to the back of the imposing peace of architecture. “Her mom owns this joint, and she gave me the keys to get in.”

“And you couldn’t have told me before hand…Why?”

“Because, then I would’ve missed out on that adorable little panic attack you had,” Percy explains with a tapping to Nico’s nose, and a smile that really has no right being so god damn cute…Honest to gods, why the fuck does he have to look like a fucking adonis all the freaking time!

“You’re an ass,” Nico intones as he takes Percy’s hand to help him up the steep, and swirling staircase.

“Ah, I see we’ve come full circle to stating the obvious once again,” Percy notes with stars shining in his large, consuming orbs. 

Eventually the pair stumble into one of the grandiose rooms towards the back of the famed museum. One which is not uncommon as a place to unveil anticipated exhibits, or as suitable grounds for some sort of impressive guest speaker.

Though for the late, Saturday evening, the space has been emptied. Only comprised of a large, pale tapestry hanging from the furthest wall, a projector, and a small, picnic basket resting besides it.

“Nico finds himself unable to construct a single word of appreciation towards the sight.

“Ahm,” Percy coughs tepidly to his left. “Ah, I know it’s really not much…You know considering that you’re kind of like a millionaires kid and all, and like how Solace is kind of on the same boat—But I hope it’s not awful.”

Nico’s lips are pressed into a straight line, not allowing a single glimpse of emotion to cross his face.

“Percy, it’s—It’s…”

“I’m sorry,” Percy quickly attempts to rectify the situation, obviously having had taken Nico’s inability to formulate a proper sentence as a bad sign.

“I would’ve asked Thals what you would be into…but I was to afraid that she’d let something slip to you. So I asked her little brother—He’s in your year—“

“Jason,” Nico identifies the younger of the Grace siblings.

“yeah, yeah him,” Percy nods enthusiastically. “And he said that you’re really into like comics, and Mythomagic and stuff—And well I’ve never really been into Mythomagic, but I bought some cards and figurines I stole from his room and thought maybe you can teach me, and ya know…gods I’m stupid aren’t I?”

“N-No, Th-that’s really cool, and sweet and—Shit,” Nico finds his words ramming into one another, and his cheeks are blazing. And he really just can’t describe how fucking sweet it is that he’d went through all of that for a stupid date with him.”

“Yeah?” Percy asks hopefully, and by the gods how does he look simultaneously the cutest damn thing in this planet, and objectively sex on a mother fucking stick, with his eyes peering up at Nico from beneath his long, spider leg lashes, and his teeth sinking into his bottom lip.

“Yeah,” Nico breathes out in assurance.

And they just stand there for an insurmountable amount of time—It could’ve been an minute, or an hour, or a day that had past—but honestly neither really cared with there gazes boring into each other like that, and how Percy’s lips were so close to Nico that he felt his hot breath tickling his own.

But then Percy’s phone buzzes, and the hush is shattered.

The older college student thumbles around his pockets for a good minute before finding the offending gadget.

“I-It’s my baby sister,” Percy explains hurriedly, obviously just as frazzled from what was so close to happening as Nico was. “She’s seven, and in the phase where she texts me links to really weird videos about whale migration before she goes to bed.”

Without even he expecting it, a roaring laughter tears through Nico. “Percy, I don’t think that’s a normal phase for most children.”

“Well on our next date you can meet Eva, and she can tell you all about it,” Percy challenges haughtily. 

Nico really tries to temper down the legion of butterflies swarming in his belly at the sound of that…”Our next date.” How many dates does Percy Jackson intend on having with him?

Nico let’s the thought of seeing Percy in all different attires and settings blossom somewhere deep in his chest. A splendid thought that makes it so a miraculously bright grin paints over his features. One that is matched with Percy’s own, as if they were exchanging furtive secrets within the depths of the enchanting winter night.

“So what’s the tapestry for?” Nico inquires easily, having become much more comfortable with his company as he takes a seat besides the wooden basket.

“Oh!” Percy perks. “Well I thought sense you Like superheroes and stuff, we could watch a classic.” 

Nico tosses him a questioning glance with the slightest curve of the lips in fond amusement.

“Spiderman! The Tobey Maguire version of course.” Percy situates between Nico and the projector, close enough so that the sent of ocean breezes and sunlit days fill Nico’s nostrils.  
“And for movie treats,” Percy lifts up the lid of the picnic basket. “Mickey D’s.”

“An homage to you asking me out?” Nico surmises.

“Precisely Di Angelo,” Percy slips in the DVD to begin playing. “Oh, just fair warning, the green boxes are from my bro Grover. He’s a vegan and trying to get me “to see the light,” but it all tastes like horse shit.”

“I’ll take that into consideration on whether I’ll dare eat from it or not,” Nico smiles, trying his hardest not to blush to badly at how Percy slips his hand into his own—Playing with Nico’s fingers as they lye atop Percy’s upper thigh, all throughout the showing.

 

***

 

“It really is getting wicked out there,” Percy remarks as he brushes away a few fleeting snowflakes sprinkled across Nico’s cheeks—Like some type of frozen freckles. “Thanks again for the ride.” 

“No problem,” Nico gives a shrug of his shoulder. “Why else would I use a personal chauffeur but to drive home my date on an especially nasty night.”

“Ah, right…why else,” Percy muttered. Honestly it was quite insane to him—A kid who lived on the very fringes of the working class—That he had just went out with a kid who probably has more money in his savings than what his pathetic, shoe box apartment would ever be worth. 

“So, um…Er, it was fun,” Nico squeezes out.

“Yeah, yeah it really was.” Percy appreciates how this boy of little words has made such an effort to connect to Percy in these past few hours—More effort than he supposes Luke had ever put in the entirety of their two year, convoluted relationship. 

“Thanks for walking me back to my dorm.”

Though, rather than a simple “Your welcome,” which Percy had expected Nico to respond with, he was pleasantly surprised by the sudden sensation of soft lips pressing against his own.

It took a fraction of a second for Percy to fully understand what was happening, and another for him to reciprocate the gesture, cupping his palm against Nico’s jawline in much of the same way Nico was doing to his own.

And for that instance of time, everything was fire, fire, fire, and all he knew was that he was kissing Nico Di Angelo, and he just wanted more, more, more.

He tasted like cinnamon, and salt, and something entirely his own—Something otherworldly, something quintessentially Nico.

Percy doesn’t hear it when Nico’s head subtly hits the door after Percy presses him up against the nearest wall, and he doesn’t feel the way Nico grasped so hard to his waist line beneath his shirt, that it was sure to bruise the next day.

All Percy felt was Nico, Nico, Nico, and all he wanted is to stay rooted at that spot for all the eons to come.

But of course the universe hates him, and far too soon his roommate—The ever third wheeling Leo Valdez—Swings open the doorway so abruptly that the pair stumble forward in shock.

“oh—Fuck, sorry.” Leo flounders, stunned to what he has so quite so apparently interrupted. “I thought a Piper’s illegal dog was pounding his head against our door again.”

“Ah no—“ Percy pants in an odd mixture of annoyance and embarrassment. “Just us.”

“Ah…right…I guess continue with what you were in the midst of—Just please remember that some of us have finals tomorrow, and don’t want to deal with their roommate being up all night.” With a final sharp grimace tossed Percy’s way, the teen saunters back to bed.

Another minute passes after Leo’s departure before Percy and Nico dare look at one another.

“Ah, I’ll call you tomorrow?” Percy offers.

“Yeah, yeah that would be cool.” Nico nods enthusiastically.

With a crooked smile, Percy plants a swift peck of the lips before Nico departs, and decides on taking a nice, cool shower before bed.

The tiniest hope begins to sprout in Percy’s mind. the hope that this—What he has started with Nico here tonight— Could actually be something amazing.

“Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous Di Angelo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually really happy how this turned out
> 
>  
> 
> Prety pretty pretty pease know what you thought, the smallest of comments make my entire day<3
> 
> Come and chat with me about these dweebs on [Tumblr](http://madzielightbanes.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> LOL I'm sorry if you hated it...Because sameeeeee  
> But pleaseeee let me know what you thought anyways :) Or any prompts you may have :)


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